APD plans plaza enforcement for New Year's: Strategy includes barricades, more cops

When it comes to the rowdy, drunk, sometimes destructive revelers that pack Arcata Plaza on holidays, the Arcata Police Department says it's figured out the most effective deterrent: More officers and barricades.

As was the case last year on New Year's Eve, APD Sgt. Todd Dokweiler said his department will continue to erect barricades around the McKinley statue this Monday, and share enforcement duties with as many law enforcement officers as neighboring agencies can spare in order to discourage would-be vandals.

"With that type of deployment, it seems like we've been able to mitigate the majority of the damage," Dokweiler said.

After Halloween 2011, a particularly rough party on the plaza that cost the city and local businesses thousands of dollars to clean up, the APD has taken a more aggressive stance during the two holidays.

Even with many Humboldt State University students out of town for the holidays, New Year's Eve has occasionally gotten out of hand on the plaza, Dokweiler said, because Arcata is often a gathering place for people from all over the county.

"Traditionally, we've had fewer people on New Year's," he said. "At midnight, we get a surge."

At this year's Halloween celebration, there were more police officers on the plaza than partiers for most of the night. At one point, however, a crowd surrounded police officers and threw objects, according to a press release. An APD sergeant was sent to the hospital after being struck in the face with a glass bottle. Officers also found a man with an AR-15 rifle slung around his neck.

Under the bigger enforcement during last year's celebration, Dokweiler said New Year's Eve was "pretty low-key."